Chapter 139
=0=Conference Room
It was the weekly N.E.S.T./Senior Autobot staff meeting and they began to congregate in the conference room off Ops Center. The soldiers were there early and brought donuts. That is, they brought energon-shaped donuts that were made as large as they could be given the size of the bots in the room. The biggest bunts they could find and an angel food cake pan had been used and they were loaded on the back of their hummer. They were placed in the center of the table and looked remarkably good.
"Those are cute, William," Ironhide said leaning forward to look at them closely.
"Have one, Hide. We ruined some pans to make them," Will Lennox said with a grin. "Remember to remind me to wear protective gear the next time we do this."
Ironhide grinned then took one of the tiny delicacies to pop it into his mouth. Savoring it, he smiled. "Pretty good."
Epps snorted. "Thanks. We had to get a few of the guys from the fuel station to come and help us formulate those things. What a pain in the butt they are to make."
"Then thanks again," Ironhide said leaning back with a grin.
"Where's Ratchet?" Epps asked looking around as the last mech wandered in to sit.
Ironhide looked around. "I don't know. I just got off security detail from overnight," he said. :Ratchet:
:What?:
:Where are you? Where's spud?:
:On our way:
:Hurry up. The donuts will be gone if you don't:
[Pause]
:Donuts?:
:Don't ask. The soldiers. Its cute. Hurry up:
:On my way. Begin without me:
As they began the meeting the door opened and Sunstreaker walked in to sit on a chair at the end of the room. He pulled a novel from subspace.
Everyone watched him but no one made any move engrossed as they were in the crime committed against them the day before.
"Fulton is ready to throw them off the island," Prime said summing up his meeting the day before. "The State Department is sending someone to investigate, some undersecretary or something."
"Investigate," Prowl said softly, his tone explaining his feelings about that.
"How about Mirage hanging around them?" Epps said causing all the bots in the room to silence a moment.
"Good idea, Robert," Optimus said kicking Ironhide under the table.
The black bot sat back holding his tongue a moment. "Good idea, Robert."
It was silent a moment, then it picked up again, item after item getting its moment as everyone waited for Ratchet.
=0=Last night and into the morning
Sunny added the last layer of polish as he buffed Ratchet in all the places that he could reach decently. Handing the buffer to Ratchet for the tender places that only Chaos Bringers had ever handled, he sat back with a grin.
Turning slowly as he stared at himself, Ratchet looked at Sunstreaker. "How does it look?"
Sunstreaker grinned. "Like an old time ambulance. It looks really really … shiny and nice."
Ratchet snorted as looked at his servos. "I have red servos. I wish I could tell you how weird that looks from this side of my optics."
"Actually, they look good. I love the chevron."
Ratchet touched his forehead, the smooth steel of the gray chevron equally strange. "What does it look like really?"
Sunny grinned and pointed to the door of the cupboard which he'd pulled open. Ratchet swallowed hard as walked to it to look at his image. The figure in the mirror was another bot, he thought, a good looking sort of sexy in a swishy 'lets play doctor, big bot' sort of way bot. He liked it right away even as it seemed he was looking at someone else.
He was nearly all white but for his servos, hips and aft and the red crosses that were painted on his shoulders. A large red Autobot insignia graced his chest just over his red hips and pelvis. A sharp and crisp gray chevron cut across his fore helm and looked darker than gray against the crisp shiny white of his body. He smiled as he turned slowly to admire the beauty of his new paint scheme. Looking at Sunstreaker who looked at him with a big grin, he nodded. "You're gifted."
Sunstreaker who was inordinately pleased by his newly minted genitor's compliment considered that he'd just familialy aligned himself with the Prankster King of the Universe. Life seldom met his expectations but this moment at the advent of this prank he felt he'd exceeded even his wildest dreams. "I want to be there."
"I want you there." Ratchet looked at his newest oldest youngling. "Why don't you go in and just sort of sit along the wall. Read something. I'll be right behind you."
Sunstreaker grinned then walked to the door. He paused as he looked back, smiling at Ratchet as if he had invented him. "Thanks, Ratchet. For everything."
Ratchet nodded. "Easiest thing ever."
Sunstreaker walked out leaving Orion and Ratchet alone. Ratchet who was admiring himself for a while walked to his sparkling to look at him with adoration. "Time to go and prank your old pa out of his paint scheme," he said reaching down to pick his sparkling up.
Orion who was staring at a new face, an unfamiliar one surrounded by familiar energy scrunched up his face in his confusion and bellowed.
=0=Ironhide
He sat in his chair waiting with the others, itching to see Ratchet and to hold his sparkling. Overnight without his family was tough on his old aft and he was getting edgy. Then his bond link sort of perked up. He settled into the comfort of feeling his bond and his little bitty buddy.
=0=Ratchet
He paced back and forth holding Orion against his newly white shoulder and his newly white helm talking to him as he did.
Orion hearing the familiar voice quieted and listened until Ratchet would hold him in front of his newly white face and then he would bellow.
Ratchet considered what he should do. Since it was way too early to have a tall cold one he considered his spark. Pulsing a loving flood of warmth to Orion, he felt his tiny spark embrace it. Staring at the stranger holding him he sent a quavering burst back.
Ratchet met it and sent an ocean of familiar love back through the creator bond to the little infant and he quieted as he looked at Ratchet. At last, he found enough familiar to stop crying. Then he reached out with both servos and grabbed Ratchet's chevron.
=0=Ironhide
He felt a slight unease and then felt peace. He felt a slight unease and then he felt peace. He felt a slight unease and then he felt ...
=0=Ratchet
He finally pried Orion's mitts off his chevron and gathered him up to walk out the door and down the hallway. The on call medic had arrived earlier and was taking up the duty of Med Bay while Ratchet was gone. He looked at the white stranger who had Ratchet's baby and blocked his path. "Just wait a moment. What are you doing with Ratchet's sparkling?"
Two other mechs sitting inside to keep him company rose up and moved toward Ratchet with deeply menacing personas.
Ratchet backed up and bumped into the corridor wall.
=0=Ironhide
He felt a dread and a fear and then he felt more. Then he felt aggravation. Then he felt slight relief. Then he felt haste. Then he felt …
=0=Ratchet
He hurried down the hallway passing mechs who watched him go. No one had seen that mech before and he had Ironhide and Ratchet's sparkling. Comming Prime, they followed as the white medico stranger hustled along.
=0=Prime
He rose immediately, the conversation stopping the same. Pulling his weapon from subspace he nearly jumped the table to reach the door.
Ironhide acting with instinct followed as his cannons revved up. Sunstreaker who didn't know what was up either was at the door and out with the other two before most of the rest of the group could rise.
In the hallway, a white and red bot with medical markings stopped short and pulled a black sparkling tighter against his chassis. Stepping backwards, he raised a red servo looking back and forth frantically while sputtering at both groups of heavily armed fragged off mechs closing in on him.. Prime raising his weapon pointed it at the strange bot's helm as he ordered him to freeze.
Ironhide stepping out from behind Prime bellowed and leaped forward to grab the sparkling and hand him off to Prime like a quarterback handing off a football. Then he turned back and belted the bot in the kisser, watching with satisfaction as he rose off his peds and flew backwards into the crowd of mechs that had been following him.
Sunstreaker watching with horror skated in front of Ironhide and held up his servos. "NO! DON'T!"
"MOVE, SUNSTREAKER!I'M GONNA KILL ME A BOT!" Ironhide bellowed.
"NO! DON'T! IT'S RATCHET!"
They all froze in place as time almost stood still. Then Ironhide moved forward to look at the white and red bot laying out cold on the concrete. He bent a knee and looked closer, then rose to step back in horror. "Oh, Primus! IT'S RATCHET!"
Prowl who was moving around everyone rushed to the white bot and knelt as shock suffused him. He looked up as he took Ratchet's limp red servo in his own. "Oh, Primus, Ironhide. You just slagged the Sexy Doctor, you dumb aft!"
=0=Med Bay
He lay on a med berth watching the birdies sing from the dent in his chin from Ironhide's fist. He was scuffed in the shoulders and his aft from hitting the ground. The day medic worked to bring Ratchet back from oblivion but his boss was not having it. Drifting somewhere in a sea of green, Ratchet was wandering through his processor trying to find his optics. He groaned and moaned twitching slightly as he swam toward the light. Somewhere there was peace and happiness and a little bitty sparkling. Somewhere there was a Chaos Bringer and he had to find them.
Then he would beat the slag out of one of them. The problem for him was he couldn't figure out which one to punch at the moment.
"Why isn't he online?" Ironhide asked as he paced back and forth. His little sparkling was looking up at him with narrowed optics as he lay in his father's arm.
Sunstreaker who was standing at the end of the berth stared down into Ratchet's white face. He looked stricken.
Bluestreak who was standing behind him with his arms around Sunstreaker looked stricken, too.
"He will. He's rebooting," the relief medic said. His optics were fixed on the screen over the berth.
Prime, Prowl, Bumblebee, the entire senior staff of Autobots and a few others who'd seen Ironhide deck the strange white and red medic were standing nearby watching with stricken optics. Everyone was stricken, especially Ratchet. Finally, after flailing for a moment, Ratchet on-lined and sat up, His processor was swimming. Then he fell back down blinking groggily. He rubbed his face and then paused to look at his servos. Sitting up swiftly, he cried out. "OH PRIMUS! MY SERVOS ARE RED! WHAT HAPPENED!"
Ironhide handing off his sparkling to Prime who juggled him like a ball until Prowl grabbed him leaned over Ratchet. "Ratchet! Can you see me?"
Ratchet paused his yelling to look at Ironhide. He gripped his arms and pulled himself back up. "Ironhide."
"Ratchet."
"Ironhide."
"That's me, Ratchet."
[Pause]
"IRONHIDE! YOU HIT ME!"
"Uh, yeah, Ratchet. You uh ..."
Ratchet sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the berth pausing to control his dizziness and nausea. He looked at Ironhide with a fierce expression of doom. "What the frag did you hit me for? THERE WERE AT LEAST A THOUSAND GUNS POINTING AT ME!" He looked at Prime. "INCLUDING YOURS!"
Prime who was shuffling his feet, gathering himself as he stepped forward. "We were trying to prevent your sparkling from going some place with a strange medic no one could recognize."
"Oh,someone could," Ratchet replied glaring at Ironhide. "RIGHT, IRONHIDE!"
Ironhide who was shifting from ped to ped, too, looked at Ratchet. "I think you're beautiful." That was all he could say. He stood on his peds looking like a sparkling caught 'doing bad' and said, "I think you look real beautiful, Ratchet."
Ratchet touched his jaw and felt the dents looked at Ironhide and shook his head. "Well, THANKS, Ironhide." He touched his face again, then stared at his servos. "I have red servos." Then he reached up and felt a chevron. "I have a chevron." Looking at all of them until he finally spotted Sunstreaker, he vaguely remembered something they did together. "Why do I have a chevron on my head?"
Sunstreaker shook his head. "The prank."
Ratchet looked at Sunstreaker for a moment then nodded. "Oh, yeah. The prank." He looked at Ironhide who looked positively ill. "Ha-ha," he said moving to stand up. He leaned back on the berth to look at his hands. Then he looked at Ironhide. "Looks like the joke's on me."
"It was a great joke," Ironhide said looking at Ratchet contritely. "You look beautiful and its a great joke." Ironhide found himself trying not to laugh. He looked at the floor. "Sexy Doctor."
"Dumb aft Mom Van," Ratchet said shaking his head. "What am I ever going to do with you, Ironhide?" he asked standing up more steadily.
Ironhide grinning slightly shrugged. "I can think of a thing or two," he said with a smirk.
Prime chuckled then they all began to laugh, all of them but Ratchet. He looked at Sunstreaker who was smiling slightly and then he winked. Turning back to the group, he smiled broadly. "By the way, Ironhide. I want you to know that I've made a big change in our family. We have two more younglings."
Ironhide pausing in his mirth looked at Ratchet for a moment wondering what new piece of the Pit was going to fall on him. "What do you mean?" he asked warily.
"We have new younglings."
"We do."
"Yes," Ratchet said grinning at Sunstreaker. "Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. Sunstreaker," Ratchet said turning to fixing Ironhide with a severe optic. "Meet 'dear old dad'."
Ironhide looked from a smirking and amused Sunstreaker to Ratchet, to a surprised and happy Bluestreak, to a Prime as lost as he was, to a smirking Prowl and back to a Ratchet who was one sexy medico. "Oh," was all he dared to say.
Ironhide looked at Sunstreaker who waggled his digits at his new genitor. "Hi, Dad," he said with a smirk.
"Oh, help me," Ironhide muttered to no one in particular.
=0=In the quarters shortly after
"You look beautiful."
"You said so."
"I didn't mean to hurt you."
"You did."
"I'm sorry."
[Silence]
"Are you going to be mad at me a long time?"
"I don't know."
[Silence]
"You really look beautiful."
[grin] "You think so do you?"
[tentative grin, a grin testing the water to see if it was safe to grin again] "I do. I dream about you like this you know."
"So I've heard."
[Pause]
[Big body moving closer to steaming medico as both sit on a couch at either end of it because at the moment 'middle' doesn't exist] "You know, I really wondered if you could carry off a chevron and you can. It really is pretty, Ratchet."
[slight grin] "Is that so."
"I think so. You wouldn't mind if I touch it would you?"
[Pause]
"My chevron?"
"Yep."
[Grin] "With what?"
"Any number of things."
"Are they clean?"
"Mostly."
[grin] "You're a true romantic, Ironhide."
[grin] "What can I say? I'm a Mom Van."
"You sure are, you slagger."
And then they didn't talk for a while.